


Midnight Oil

by gardnerhill



Series: 221b Ficlets by Gardnerhill [82]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
Genre: 221B Ficlet, Alternate Universe - Animals, Community: watsons_woes, Gen, Prompt Fic, Sleep Deprivation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 14:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19889689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gardnerhill/pseuds/gardnerhill
Summary: Not all the clients are active by day.





	Midnight Oil

**Author's Note:**

> For the 2019 July Watson's Woes Promptfest prompt #20: **Working Cases in Your Sleep: Your work today should include an issue with sleeping (Somnambulism, exhaustion, insomnia, etc).**

My friend Basil of Baker Street does not restrict his services to our fellow mice; not only has he aided other beasts of Great Britain (the cases of the Vanished Goose and the Gull's Eggs come to mind), but he considers all _Rodentia_ as his regular clientele, not merely all mousedom. We have gained splendid alliances, like the young street-rats who aid Basil as lookouts.

However, this sometimes caused difficulties when he took cases for our night-living cousins. If a hamster or dormouse came to us for help (knocking at our door just about the time of evening that a self-respecting city mouse begins to think of bed) and their plight caught Basil's interest, he would foreswear sleep as well as food to follow the trail.

Of course I went along too. "At least those blasted murderous gulls were _diurnal_ ," I muttered, stumbling after Basil and muffling a yawn, and was hushed by my partner.

Basil once spent three days and nights without sleep, living only on the heavily-sugared tea I forced on him. Missing gems, Lady Bijou's disappearance, the Red-Furred League, the Owl Society – all concluded in less than a week.

"Now rest, dear fellow!"

"Tush! I could take a dozen more, Dawson!" Basil said, drinking his tea. Blink. Blink. And he sank to the floor, insensate.

Good old brandy.


End file.
